Kings and their demesnes · Samarkand: the Western Qarakhanids · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ibrahim Khan

Ibrahim b.

Husayn has ruled Samarkand for twenty-one years as the gurkhan's vassal, after fourteen years as khan of Ferghana. He is the senior Qarakhanid of the west and strikes coins in his own name at Samarkand and Bukhara; under him Samarkand's authority over Bukhara, lost to the sadrs and to Tekish's raid of 1182, has been restored. He is a patron of Persian letters and a poet himself: the History of Turkestan and the History of Khitay of Majd al-Din Muhammad b.

Adnan were written for him. He has a palace at Gurjmin outside Samarkand, and the painted palace excavated in the Afrasiyab citadel is dated to the later twelfth century and probably his. He is old, and dies between 1201 and 1204.

Who he is

Name
Ibrahim b. Husayn
Title
Khan of Samarkand; Nusrat al-Dunya wa'l-Din; Arslan Khan or Tamghach Khan; 'Great Sultan, Sultan of Sultans' on his coins
Since
574 AH (1178); khan of Ferghana at Uzgend from 559 (1164)
Born
Not pinned (an adult ruler by 1164)
Family
Son of Husayn b. Hasan of Ferghana; brother of Mahmud of Ferghana (died 1164); father of Uthman, his heir; uncle of Taj al-Din Bilge Khan of Otrar. Wives and other children not pinned.
Confidence
high

TDV 'Karahanlilar'; Barthold, Turkestan, pp. 42, 115, 380-381.

Overlord

The gurkhan Yelu Zhilugu

What it holds

  • Samarkand with its citadel and palaces
  • Sughd: the Zarafshan valley from Panjikant to Karmina, with Ishtikhan, Kushaniya and Dabusiyya
  • The Kashka Darya: Kesh and Nasaf
  • Overlordship and coinage in Bukhara (see the Bukhara records)
  • Ushrusana and Khujand: probably (not pinned)

How it was acquired

Succession within the Qarakhanid house with the gurkhan's consent (1178).

Allies and rivals

Lord: the gurkhan. Kinsmen: the khans of Shash and Uzgend, Bilge Khan of Otrar. Rival: the sadr of Bukhara. Enemy in the past: Tekish (1182, and by Ibn al-Athir's account 1198).

How things stand that morning

Ruling at Samarkand; his latest dated Samarkand coins known to Barthold are of 595 (1198-99), and his Bukhara coins of 597 (1200-01).

Wealth

See the realm record: the Zarafshan oasis, paper, cloth, the caravan trade, the mint.

Military

The khan's Turkish guard; the walls of Samarkand, Kesh, Nasaf and Karmina. No figures.

Threats

  • Old age and the succession
  • Khwarazm
  • The Ghurids across the Oxus

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1201-1204Dies; Uthman succeeds.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Nothing.

Places of note

  • Gurjmin palace: A palace of Tamghach Khan Ibrahim b. al-Husayn at Gurjmin (or Karjumin) near Samarkand (Barthold p. 115); its exact site is not pinned, so the point stands at the city.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Coins, Barthold and the TDV give his career; his acts in 1199-1200 are not recorded.

On the map: The Zarafshan and Kashka Darya blocks are firm; the Ushrusana and Khujand block is an inference from the shape of the old Western Qarakhanid khanate.

Primary sources for Khanate of Samarkand

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
  • History of the Liao, chapter 30, on the Western Liao, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1344). The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. Read online
  • History of the World Conqueror: the Qara Khitai (Gur Khans) and the Uyghurs of Beshbaliq, Ala al-Din Ata-Malik Juvayni (begun about 1252 to 1253, ends with 1260). Juvayni's chapters on the Uyghur kingdom (its origin legend, Beshbaliq and Qocho, and the idiqut Barchuq's murder of the Qara Khitai resident before his submission to Chinggis Khan in 1209) and on the Gur Khans of the Qara Khitai are the fullest Muslim account of the Tarim and Zhetysu around 1200: the gurkhan Zhilugu's court at Balasagun, his tax collectors in the oasis towns and in Samarkand, his relations with the Khwarazmshah Tekish and then Muhammad, and the arrival of the Naiman prince Kuchlug in 1208. Read online
  • Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online
  • Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun (Qiu Chuji), Li Zhichang (李志常) (about 1228, from the journey of 1220 to 1224). A dated eyewitness itinerary across the steppe and the Tarim twenty years after 1200: the Kereyit country and the Ongud frontier, the Naiman mountains, the Uyghur towns of Beshbaliq and the Tarim with their Buddhist and Christian communities, Almaliq of the Qarluq, and Samarkand. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Karahanlilar'
  2. W. Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (1928), pp. 42, 115, 380-381
  3. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Ilak-Khanids'

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.